IT'S ABOUT TIME!

After only 40 weeks and 5 days, Mya Audrey Velazquez decided to join us! Not surprisingly, she is GORGEOUS! I mean, look at her parents.

Wendy didn't push for very long -- about 35 minutes. And for the record, she was a silent pusher! No screaming, no cursing at her husband -- just focus. This chick was in a ZONE!

Anyways, the vitals:
Mya Audrey Velazquez
Born: February 25, 2008 @ 1:22 p.m.
Weight: 8 lbs. 3 oz.
Length: 20 1/2 in.

Gwin, you were close with your guess of February 24, but Jenny Pearson, you nailed the delivery date. Yes, it still counts even though it was an induction.

Sergio, by going with the "under" on Melinda's guess, nailed the 8 lbs. 3 oz. birth weight.

Mama Val, you got her length correct at 20.5, as did Gwin. The jury is still out on her first words...

I can, without hesitation, tell you that Wendy and I spent the next hour crying and/or fighting back tears of joy. To see her bring our daughter into this world...well, I don't know if I'll ever be more amazed at something. Both mom and baby are doing fine and are recovering here at the hospital. Not surprisingly, our first night as a family was a rough one -- Mya was either wanting to eat or needing a diaper change all night. And parents, you know how fun those first few diapers are!

Thank you so much to everyone for all your thoughts, prayers, texts, calls, gifts and visits. She's our child but this was very much a community effort and we feel blessed to have such great family and friends to share this experience with. We're parents now and that's a tough thing to wrap our brains around. But we are both so in love with this little girl already that we are looking forward to the journey!

I will try to post more pics of this little love bundle soon. Time to get back to my girls -- I smell a full diaper!

Blessings,
Eric & Wendy

HOSPITAL TIME

Is this blog two days overdue? Yes. But bear with me and I'll give you the play-by-play in sequence.

Wendy and I checked into the hospital to start the induction process at 9:15 on Sunday evening after watching No Country for Old Men win all of the Oscars. Before we headed out, Wendy was really nervous -- it was go time and like any first-time mom, she didn't know what to expect.

After checking into a lovely room with two pee-proof beds -- and don't think I didn't test it out -- they started the induction process. But by morning, the hormones that they had given Wendy hadn't provided the punch they'd hoped. She was, by that time, still only 1-2 cm dilated -- as she had been for the past two weeks. So in came Dr. Russo on Monday morning to break Wendy's water. And because she knew what Wendy could expect after that, she recommended the epidural immediately. Wendy politely accepted. As you can see from the photo, she was pretty excited to get medicated because her contractions became incredibly intense within minutes after breaking her water. She took the epidural like a champ.


From there, things went fast. Wendy went from 2 cm to 10 cm dilated between 9:30 and about 12:45. That's when it was time to push!

40 WEEKS

How long are women supposed to be pregnant again? I read a few places that it is 40 weeks -- 10 months total, contrary to popular belief. Wendy is 39 weeks and 5 days along now. Mya is due on Wednesday! Of course, she'll come when she wants to come -- not when WE want her to.

This picture was taken during one of Mya's busy spells on Monday evening. At one point, she performed some of her token acrobatics, which seemed to completely reshape Wendy's belly.

We have an appointment with Dr. Russo on Tuesday morning. Wendy's hoping for a best case scenario in which Dr. Russo says we have to induce, or that Wendy's dilated and ready to be admitted. But based on the absence of contractions since Saturday, when she had nine that were about four minutes apart, it doesn't look like Mya's going anywhere quite yet. Her Braxton-Hicks contractions have become more frequent but are still very mild and never in regular intervals (except Saturday). Let it be noted for the record that daddy (that's me, kids) predicted a February 22 arrival date.

At the hospital, I'll have wireless internet access and plan to post to the blog with updates as often as possible. That means I'll post news whenever I'm not holding Wendy's hand or coaching her through contractions. (At least that's the plan!)

What I can say is that I already miss feeling Mya moving around inside Wendy's belly. I'm WAY excited for my wife that she'll be able to enjoy life's simple pleasures like sleeping on her stomach, exercising and breathing like a normal person again -- but these last 40 weeks have been so awesome, so miraculous for me. I will miss it for sure. But I'll get to hold our little girl soon, so I think I'll survive.

Remember to keep this link handy for updates. Remember -- our due date is Wednesday!

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS GIRL?

Okay...38 weeks and still no Mya. Would it be a first to put the face of an unborn child on a milk carton? These are the things we wonder. So here are a few bulletpoints on what the increasingly anxious parents-to-be are going through:

1. Why so anxious? Well, it depends on who you ask. For Wendy, it could be the fact that it feels like Mya is trying to tunnel her way out through her floating ribs so naturally, she is ready for the birthing and the pushing and the screaming. While some of the mid-pregnancy fun -- like hip pain and extreme fatigue -- hasn't completely gone away, it all seems to be overshadowed by this lingering rib pain for this poor mommy. But she's on maternity leave now. Which brings us to #2.

2. Wendy's on maternity leave. She went in this week for another baby shower, this time put on by her co-workers, but I don't think that counts as work. Now that she's home all day, she's been bored out of her mind but has been channeling that boredom into the house -- creating new storage, coming up with interesting new Mexican food recipes and finishing Mya's room. Onto #3.

3. One of the biggest reasons for the anxiety definitely has to do with the fact that the nursery is done and we are ready to receive! Okay, it's not ENTIRELY pristine. We have a few things to find room for still and, oh yeah...there was a leak in the ceiling.

4. THERE ARE LEAKS IN THE CEILING! I don't get the valley. For 11 1/2 months out of the year, it's 135 degrees and you can cook an egg on the sidewalk. But for two straight weekends, it poured buckets on our heads. Happily, it helped us find every single design flaw in our home. We had buckets, bowls and sponges out in full force for like 10 days but one of the worst leaks was in Mya's room. Yuk. Here's to the next 11 months.

5. Finally, Wendy's been having Braxton-Hicks contractions far more often. These practice contractions have given us both a chance to practice our breathing techniques for labor. She had three that were all pretty close together after the Super Bowl party at Jeff's -- they were all three minutes apart. But then the next one didn't come for another half hour. We're hoping that we only end up making ONE trip to the hospital. (insert Dave's "yeah right" here)

Aside from these things, we've just been watching movies (Cloverfield, Michael Clayton and Juno to name a few), playing poker (damn that Jared Evans) and relaxing when we can.

We really can't wait to meet this little girl.